Method of absorbing gases or vapors and the production of high vacuums.



No. 815,942. PATENTED MAR. 27, 1906. J. DEWAR.

METHOD OF ABSORBING GASES 0R VAPORS .AND THE PRODUCTION OF HIGH VAGUUMS.

APPLICATION FILED APB..25.1905.

), wrrusss s mvsm'on ETED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

uAMEs DEWAR, or CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND. METHOD OF ABSOHllING GASES H VAPQRS AND THE PRODUCTION OF HIGH VACUUMS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

tamed March 27, 1906.

Application filed April 25, 1906. Serial No- 257,352.

. fessor of chemistry, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at 1 Scroope Terrace, Cambridge, England, have invented a certain new and useful Improved Method of Absorbing Gases or Vapors and the Production of High Vacua, of which the following is a specification.

It is known that charcoal absorbs manygases and that when heated to a red heat and exhausted -to free it from its naturally-contained gas it is capable on cooling to the ordinary temperature of absorbing traces of gas left in a virtually vacuous space.

By my invention charcoal, by which term I mean more or less pure carbon obtained by the destructive distillation or imperfect combustion of organic material or by the action of an agent like strong sulfuric acid on sugar or the like, is made a better absorbent for gases than it is at the ordinary temperature by cooling it to a temperature comparable with that at which the gas orvapor to be absorbed boils. As an instance of the effect of such cooling a mass of charcoal made from cocoanut-shells at the temperatufe of 0 centigrade and seven hundred and sixty millimeters pressure will absorb four cubic centimeters of hydrogen or eighteen cubic centimeters; of oxygen. When itis cooled to 180 centigrade, it will .absorb one hundred and thirty-five cubic centimeters of hydrogen" or two hundred and thirty cubic centimeters of oxygen, both measured at 0 centigrade and seven hundred and sixtymillimeters ressure.

Accor ing to my invention I apply this method of absorbing gases or va ors to the production of high vacua. For t 's purpose charcoal may be introduced intoa suitable vessel which is in or is'put into air-ti ht communication with the vessel to be e austed. The charcoal, which acts best when it has been recently strongly heated, is now cooled to a temperature preferably about that at which the gas to be absorbed boilsfor instance, by immersing the vessel containing it in liquid airs The charcoal absorbs the gas from the vessel being exhausted, and when it no longer continues-to do so or the absorption has proceeded far enough communication between the two vessels may be cut oifinan suitable manner. It is obvious that the vessel containing the vacuum is required.

charcoal should be opened before its tem perature is allowed to rise, or instead of cutting off the communication between the vessels that containing the charcoal may be retained immersed in liquid air so long as the It is obvious that it may be economical to combine the use of charcoaL-aeeordini my invention with the use of an air-pump, asin this way the vessel to be exhausted may be greatly reduced in gaseous contents, thus enabling a smaller mass of charcoal to be used and a correspondingly smaller quantity. of-

the cooling agent.

The amount of charcoal required depends on the specific-power of condensation of the particular charcoal used, the nature of the gas or vapor to be exhausted, the volume to be absorbed, the desired degree of exhaustion, and the temperature to which the charcoal is cooled. When air. is the gas to be absorbed, as injthe manufacture of incandescent elecelectric energy, like Roengten tubes, some idea of the proportion which the charcoal should bear to the volume of air it is to absorb when liquid air is the cooling agent may be gathered from the following statement.

which an electric discharge produces the well-known striae. When the pump was operated to reduce the pressure to one-fourth atmosphere before the cooling, the latter produced a vacuum in which it was exceedingly difficult to get an electric spark to ass. As it is very easy to use a proportion o charcoal larger than is likely to be required, I do not consider any further directions in this respect necessary to enable others to practice my in- 'vention.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 shows in elevation an ordinary incandescent electric lamp arra ed tobe exhausted by my method. The bulb b, communicatin by capillary tube 0 Withthe lamp, contains 0 ar- .tric lamps or of tubes for emitting radiant IlIO coal and is heated strongly while an exhaust= pump is ap lied to the side tube (1. When the pump as exhausted most of the as from the tube and charcoal, the side tube is sealed and the cooled bulb b is immersed in the li uid air. After a few minutes the carbon ament is heated to incandescence by the passage of an electric current, the tube 0 is sealed, and the lamp is separated. Fig. 2 shows one form of the application of my invention to the 'roductlon of an improved form of the Wel -known vacuum vessels in which liquid air is preserved from rapid evaporation.

The double-walled glass vessel 0, is provided at thelower art of its inner wall with a recess 6, which is iilled with recently-ignited charcoal. The s ace between the walls may be advantageous y exhausted by a pump before it is sealed at the oint c in order to diminish thequantity 0 charcoal re uired to produce a vacuum. When liqui air is poured into the vessel, the charcoal absorbs the air left in the space between the walls, so that this space becomes a high vacuum and remains so while there is enough liquid air in the vessel to cover the recess 1).

Although it-sufiices to cool the charcoal to about the temperature at which the gas to be absorbed boils, the absorptive power of the charcoal is improved if its temperature be still further lowered by causing the cooling agent in which it is immersed to evaporate under reduced pressure.

The double-walled glass vessels ma be internally coated with silver, or a little mercury may be placed at the bottom of the space between the walls in order to secure better heat isolation. If instead of oxygen or nitro en bein the residuary as to be absorbed y the c arcoal, a gas like carbonic acid is left in the space between the walls, then cooling the charcoal to 80 centigrade, which isthe boiling-point of carbonic acid, will produce a good vacuum.

I claim- 1. A method of absorbing gases or vapors by exposing to the gas charcoal cooled to a temperature comparable with that at which the gas to be absorbed boils, substantially as described.

2. The production of high vacua by .cooling to a temperature comparable with that at which the gas to be removed boils, a mass of charcoal wlthin the space to be exhausted or in a vessel in communication therewith,

substantially as described In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JAMES DEWAR. Witnesses: 4 I

G. F. WARREN k OLIVER IRMAN. 

